Corruptions Are Fatal
by holoblood
Summary: (CURRENTLY ON HIATUS, I APOLOGIZE.) Pearl cracks her gem, but this time it isn't the same. [Rated T for violence and potential character death. Also, I was a bit unsure about the genre, so sorry if you don't find what you're looking for.]
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter One: Accidents._

* * *

It was a cloudy day in Beach City, Steven was sitting on his bed watching television. The gems were out on a mission but this time Steven couldn't come because of how dangerous it was, so he had to stay home to his disappointment. He flicked through channels looking for something to watch. Then, the sound of the warp pad activating caught Stevens attention. He jumped out of his bed and ran downstairs, it was Pearl who seemed to look exhausted.

"Hi Pearl!" Steven greeted.

The thin gem turned her head and looked at the half gem warmly,

"Hello, Steven," Pearl proceeded to stretch her back a bit, grunting as something popped.

"Ahh... Much better,"

"Where are Garnet and Amethyst?" Steven looked around looking for the other gems, wondering. Pearl rubbed her head as she spoke,

"They're still out on the mission, Garnet insisted that I come back to the temple to relax... I haven't been feeling well," She walked over to the couch in the living room and sat down, Steven following right after. The pale gem leaned her head back and exhaled, letting her body relax more.

"Hey, Pearl?" A voice spoke up.

Pearl turned her head towards Steven,

"Yes?"  
"You said all gems can shapeshift right?  
"Yes."  
"So... How come you never shapeshift?"

Pearl thought for a moment, she never thought it was necessary for recreational activities like the way Amethyst used them, when she actually thought about it, she hasn't used her shapeshifting powers in about a hundred years or so. And what was odd was that she couldn't remember why she never used them, her train of thought was interrupted by Steven asking her something,  
"Can I see you shapeshift, Pearl?"

The gem then sat up and tilted her head,

"Into what?"

"I don't know, something weird?"

'_Something weird.' _Pearl echoed in her mind, she didn't really like to take ridiculous forms like her teammate did, '_Maybe I can just manipulate my body in someway...' _

She pondered for a moment then thought of something, something simple. Her left hand flashed and she showed Steven. It was a smiling mouth on her palm,

"Is this, alright?" Pearl asked, hoping it didn't disturb him too much.

"Woaaahhh... That's so cool!" The boy exclaimed, starts in his eyes. "Can it talk?"

She looked at the mouth, she didn't think it could,

"No, I don't think so," Pearl looked back at the mouth, but this time instead of smiling, it was showing a toothy frown. She felt uneasy doing this, her hand flashed, causing the mouth to disappear,

"Steven, I don't think I want to do this anymore, can we do something else?"

"Aww... Alright..." Steven complained.

"Here, I got something that'll cheer you up," She got up and started to walk towards the temple door, "It's in my room so you'll have to wait here,"

Pearl stopped walking when the warp pad started to glow, Amethyst and Garnet warped in with Amethyst holding something in her hands. The short gem ran over to Steven to show him,  
"Hey, Steven! Check it out!" She shoved a green, slimy sphere in Stevens face, it emitted an awful stench causing him to gag,

"Ew! Amethyst, thats gross!" He quickly pushed the object away from his face but this caused the sphere to fly out of Amethysts hands and ricochet of the walls and furniture, Pearl ducked as it flew over her head,

"Ah! Amethyst was that necessary?!" She ducked again, "You shouldn't of-" Her scolding was cut short when the object collided with her gem, causing her to stagger and fall backwards, the hit making her pass out cold.  
Steven gasped and ran over to the gem on the floor,

"Pearl! Are you alright?" He shook her arm, trying to wake her up but to no avail. The pale gems physical form flickered and glitched, abnormalities appearing on her body.

And a jagged and crooked line appearing on her gem.

* * *

_Authors Note: _Sorry these might be fairly short, I usually write things until I run out of ideas, etc. Plus: I'm not the best at writing so just bare with me.  
Another note, this fanfiction is based off of an au (alternate universe) story so... there you go, I guess.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two: Oddities_

* * *

"Guys, she's waking up!"

Pearl was laying in Stevens bed, she was unconscious for about an hour or so,

"Ugh..." She groaned and clutched her head, "Wh-what happened?"

The gem sat up and opened her eyes, she was met with Steven, Amethyst, and Garnet looking disturbed, Pearl titled her head in confusion,

"What? What's wrong?" She blinked, unaware of the situation.

"Y-your eyes..." Steven stuttered, shaken from the sight.

The gem, in confusion, got out of bed and walked downstairs to the mirror in the bathroom, screaming a minute later,

"M-my eyes! And theres a bunch on my arms! My legs too!" She ran out of the bathroom and up the stairs, frightened she grabbed Garnets arms tightly. Her own shivering,

"Garnet, what happened to my body?! Th-there's mouths all over my limbs!"

The stoic gem examined her teammates body, then noticed a small crack on her pearl.

"Your gem is cracked," She simply said, Garnet observed it once again, the cracked gem was opaque and dim. The gem removed the shaky hands grasping her arms and brought her own up to Pearls gem to observe it, the surface was rough and gritty, like sandpaper. Pearl fidgeted with her hands, seeing that there was mouths in her palms too, one in each. Even though it wasn't visible, her eyes were darting across the room nervously, freezing when Garnet spoke,

"I'll have to find someway to heal this, Roses spring and Stevens powers won't be able to fix your gem. I haven't seen this case since Homeworld," Garnets arms fell to her sides and she readjusted her shades. The pale gem started to shake and shiver again, she covered her eyes with her hands and sat down on Stevens bed,

"I'm doomed..." She whispered to herself, she sobbed quietly, not noticing the boy sitting next to her and putting his hand on Pearls back,

"Don't worry Pearl, we'll be able to heal your gem. I promise!" Steven said with optimism in his voice, after a minute or two Pearl stopped crying. Her physical form glitching and flickering, causing more mouths to appear on her limbs, each of them smiling just a bit. She took her hands away from her eyes and turned her head towards Steven, smiling a crooked smile, an audible crack could be heard.  
"Um, Pearl?" Steven had a concerned look on his face, "Are you alright?"  
"I'm fine, Steven," Pearl tilted her head to an impossible angle, an angle that would break someone's neck,

"But will you be?" She leaned towards Steven, putting her claw like hand on his shoulder, the hand in her palm starting to bite his shoulder,  
"Ow!" Steven swatted her hand off and backed away. Garnet intervened by grabbing Steven and placing behind her,

"Pearl, we are going to have to contain you until we can heal you,"

"Oh, Garnet. I feel just fine!" Pearl said in a sing-song voice, getting up and approaching the leader. The dark gem crossed her arms and frowned,

"You are not fine at all. The corruption process is starting earlier than I thought, if you don't get help you'll die," Garnet directed her attention towards Amethyst who was sitting by Stevens television,

"Amethyst, I want you to take Steven into the temple while I contain Pearl,"

"Gotcha, lets go lil man," The short gem promptly picked up the boy, which caused a 'woah' too slip out, and jumped towards the temple door. It glowed and opened to Amethysts room, closing after the two went in. Garnet turned back to Pearl and spoke, "You're going to have to come into the temple with me," The gem reached to the corrupted one but was slapped away,

"I'm fine, Garnet," Pearls expression turned dark,

"I don't need anyones help,"

"Yes you do,"

"No I-"

"Pearl you _will _die if you don't come with me to the temple," Garnet then grabbed Pearls hand and started to drag her towards the temple door, the corrupted gem struggled, hitting Garnets arm repeatedly in an attempt to free herself. The struggling was mostly one sided due to Garnet. The setting became dim and dark when they entered the temple, it was the lava pit room. The air was warm and there was a soft light emitting from the lava in the center of the room,

"Please, for your own sake Pearl, let me help you," The leader pleaded. She summoned her gauntlets and grabbed the corrupted gem,

"Wh-what are you doing?!" The gem exclaimed.

"I'm going to bubble you so you don't cause injuries to anyone,"

"NO! I don't need any help!" Pearl struggled, her body wavered and glitched.

Crack.

Pearl broke out of Garnets grip and backed away a few steps,

"You'll see that I'm right," Pearl hissed and ran off, Garnet chasing right after her.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three: Hound_

* * *

Steven sat on the ground, twiddling with his thumbs,

"Sooooo... Is Pearl going to be okay?" The boy asked Amethyst while she played with junk scattered around her room. The purple gem walked over to Steven and patted his head,

"Yeaah, bird nerd will be fine," Steven looked back down at his hands.

"Um, alright..." He then got up and fiddled with one of the piles of different objects, Steven jolted and quickly grabbed for his nose when he smelt and awful stench,

"Eww! Amethyst did you keep more rotten food in here?!"

"What? Probably."

Steven shuffled through the pile as he tried to find the source of the smell, then, a green colored object rolled out leaving a trail of slime in it's path. He went to go pick it up when it rolled just as he tried to touch it,

"Huh?" Steven tried to pick it up again with both hands, the horrible smell attacking his nose, he groaned as he plugged his nose again and tried to pick it up. The ball rolled again.

"Hey Amethyst, come check this out!" Amethyst ran over,

"Oh hey! It's that weird ball thing that we got on the mission today. I wonder how it got into my room," Amethyst wondered. Her attention was back onto the sphere as it started to roll away, Steven and Amethyst started to chase after it until it went into one of the transporting puddles in the gems room.

"Where did it go?"

"It went into Pearls room." Amethyst said before sticking her head into the puddle.

"Do you see it?" Steven asked, the purple gem didn't respond, instead she suddenly went into the puddle. After a minute or two she didn't come back out, Steven hovered over the puddle,

"Amethyst?"

No response.

With no thought, Steven stuck his head to retrieve the gem.

It was definitely Pearls room, but there was something different. It was dim and quiet, the water was still, but not frozen. The boy climbed out of the water and called out for someone,

"Amethyst? Pearl? Uhh, anyone?"

Silence.

Then, there was a small pitter patter of water, footsteps, a figure grabbed Stevens shoulders, causing him to yelp in surprise. The boy turned around,

"BOO!"

"Ahh!" He fell backwards onto his bottom, an obnoxious laugh rung throughout the room.

"Ahahaha! I totally got you! Man, why are you so jumpy." Amethyst chuckled, Steven groaned and stood up,

"Amethyst don't do that, it's kind of spooky in here..." The half gem said in a scared tone.

"Pff, what are you scared about? It's just Pearls room-" Amethyst was interrupted by a loud banging noise.

"What was that?" Steven looked around, trying to find the source of the noise.

Laughter echoed, sending chills put the two spines,

"Amethyst, was that you?"  
"What? No, I think theres someone else in the room." The gem tried to look around, but it seemed that it had gotten darker,

"Ugh, I can't even see in here!" Amethyst stomped on the water, causing it to splash a bit. Then their heads turned to the temple door as it opened, Garnet standing in the doorway,

"You two need to get out of Pearls room."  
"But what about Pearl-"  
"Now!"

"C'mon bud," Amethyst grabbed Steven and jumped off of the waterfall and towards the exit, but was hit in midair by something, or someone, rather.

The two hit the wall and slid to the floor, both dazed. The laughter occurred again, it was Pearl, she was standing on the pool of water that was right in front of the temple door,

"Whoops! Looks like I interrupted your little trip out, I guess thats been cut short."

"Pearl, don't hurt them," Garnet run in front of Amethyst and Steven and shielded them, summoning her gauntlets. Pearl took a step forward and smiled.

The gem looked different, she had gotten taller, more mouths had appeared on her arms and legs, and her ribbon around her stomach had disappeared. A sickening crack could be heard as Pearls back bent and a large mouth had opened on her stomach, teeth and everything. Garnet, Amethyst, and Stevens blood ran cold, their faces twisted in horror as the mouth smiled.

* * *

Sorry about how slow these chapters are coming out, I've been living life (Also I sort of forgot, hehe...). This chapter is a bit short since I'm lacking the drive, oops. Also, I would love it if you guys gave me suggestions for one shots in your reviews! :^]


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